During my “missing years” or the “healing ramble” or whatever, there was sort of a circuit of safe houses, hideouts and caches i rotated through which included Pacifica, California.
“Im just a constant headache.” is how I felt for a long long time (although I did not paint this myself on the pier)
A couple dear friends there looked out for me as I received of medical treatment there – some planned and some ummmm unintended.
As it goes, while looking for something else, I kept coming across mah ole face on four separate visits and right away could see the change as dealt with so much well, change and loss… “Losing everything” / my health, my erstwhile career, my energy, my mind, myself, my parents, and so much more.
the pier takes and “L” shape / you could often hear circle language is spoken, sometimes kids selling something, crab pots, fishing lines, a few dingy sinks for gutting your catch
The pier would be usually occupied by a scattered assortment of fishers and crab catchers, and others like me, just watching the waves rolling, fog twitching, the occasional hearty surfer, and every once in a while a humpback whale.
As usual, there’s more to say about “all of this” (yes, there’s a pending medical – specific report in the slow moving “healing ramble” series) but for now, I present to you: me & Pacifica pier which was a safe refuge for me as could walk back-and-forth – at the foot is a coffee shop serving clam chowder in a bread bowl and a Matcha latte, the street has so many cute little funky beach ‘shacks’ (any of them cost in million+ now) that, due to zoning regulations & shoreline protection mandates, couldn’t really be changed… so the area of town was sort of stuck in a past decade and showed it’s working class roots and rum running/bootlegging history.
Minor annotations included with the photos. Remarkable to me anyhow & a reminder of what “we” are capable of, I mean if I am able to tough it out, evolve and change with it all, you certainly can.
2014 / not happy with how I found myself in life as it was
2015 / it turns out the “unknown“ was a lot more dangerous than expected / and yes, it was much worse than this suggests
2016 / trying really trying to intrepidly step in to the unknown
2016 / an unexpected and unfortunate trip has no picture of my face but this is the coffee shop at the start of the pier
2018 / came to deposit my mother’s ashes off the end of the pier and took a moment to think about the changes my life would take in the months to come
2017/ Pacifica on a scrapbook and a Lomo rolling with me through Thailand
I Hell<3 Pacifica. Grateful.
wandering, wandering, being grateful and dreaming about the future
i mean, the details get lost: the right trousers, shoes, white shirt and blue tie – alas the glasses and the mediocre hair bring it down
Tintin, the intrepid reporter who managed to foil his enemies, while chasing down a story and exotic countries, was, and remains, my hero.
As a seven(?)-year-old in Guilford, I did my best to emulate him, alas, glasses were a necessity but the +4 pants, rackish tie and dapper overcoat captured the spirit for my satisfaction… as does the jaunty grasp of the overcoat showing “im ready for anything”. {Indeed, I was ready for anything and off into the world i went, eventually morphine more into a captain had hot type and finally settling into professor calculus/sunflower .}
However, I spent the entire evening trying to explain to people who I was. Surrey wasn’t ready then, and likely isn’t now, for this remix of (a relatively to North American audiences) obscure Belgian.
Vintage DaveO postcard from “Canadian Jamboree 1981” CJ 81 in Kananaskis Country, the summer i turned 11 yrs old (i was probably the youngest on site and needed special permission but ya know i was a keener as they say).
Bikes, canoes, beavers, creative handwriting… In other words, i haven’t changed much since :)
PS Funny thing is, I was back home from camp for a week before it actually showed up… Kind of defeats the purpose but great artifact
Aside: Paralympic stamps are already disappeared from the post office along with all other evidence of the recent Olympics around Japan. It’s not a happy feeling in general despite all the shiny shiny performances
Sharing this August batch so a recent new penpal in India can see some Paralympics stamps from Tokyo2020/1 > love the big stacks! sending vibes out to so many.
September series are thick textured tactile washi paper with ink drawings of tea ceremony items / you can get in on the goodtimes / priceless + putting “fun” into fungible.
Bits of inspiration for September’s postcard as a service assortment
Me and the little champion went up to the grandma and grandpa‘s graves to light some incense, give a clean and have a little hang out together. We met a snail, Ichiro fell asleep. Evidence of all follows:
Ichiro lounging in the “baby car”we light incense, clap and talk to give Grandpa Ichiro and Grandma Tomiko an update
pondering amateur cartography whilst waiting for a bus
Re: Amateur Cartography
Over the wall to seitai treatment (as such, obligatory bus stop snappie for evidence) with The Weakerthans in my ears… this song “Aside”, i coulda sworn i wrote these words, just not in this order. In a notebook scribbled in a suitcase no doubt. Maybe The Neko Nekos will cover this too (i gotta learn that baritone ukulele – Also adding to list: singing, learn how to do that (although I do sing “little blue truck”)).
Ichiro doesn’t know it yet but we’re gonna make a family The Linda Lindas cover band when he’s a *lil* bit older with his Mom & me. We’ll call The Neko Nekos and try to be at least 3% as cool as the originals. Its a perfect plan. We’ll make shirts.
“Aside” by John K Samson (allegedly :))
Measure me in metered lines And one decisive stare The time it takes to get from here to there My ribs that show through t-shirts And these shoes I got for free I’m unconsoled I’m lonely I am so much better than I used to be
Terrified of telephones And shopping malls and knives We’re drowning in the pools of other lives Rely a bit too heavily On alcohol and irony Get clobbered on by courtesy In love with love and lousy poetry
And I’m leaning on this broken fence Between past and present tense And I’m losing all those stupid games That I swore I’d never play But it almost feels okay
Circumnavigate this body Of wonder and uncertainty Armed with every precious failure And amateur cartography
I breath in deep before I spread those maps out on my bedroom floor
And I’m leaning on this broken fence Between past and present tense And I’m losing all those stupid games That I swore I’d never play But it feels okay
And I’m leaving, wave goodbye And I’m losing but I’ll try With the last ways left To remember, sing My imperfect offering
Fire it up:
Update: learned G & C on ukulele today. next, the world
Evidence of a passport renewal, the mustache means I’m a distinguished person to be taken seriously, right? Am I doing this right?
* two years towards forever *
There was a time when I was disappeared, when I was invisible, for reasons unnecessary to explain right now.
So much collapsed, lost, left, leading to confusion, despair and seeking… Far — I mean *all the way* — deliberately lost, comfortably lonely, finding ways and means of healing, picking up the pieces, starting again, recycling some bits, rebuilding from the foundation, working backwards from the mis-quoted Buddha koans… there were poetry, scrapbooks, letters and tears.
* reinventing to who I already was *
But what I came here to say is “it’s all about the cycles“ and as it goes… two years ago I came here to begin a new life. I will live here forever.
When I was a kid, I knew right away I wanted to “go places, make stories, share with others“ I’ve done a lot of the first two, now can do a lot of the three while still doing more of the two and maybe some of the one, but only maybe. And I’m cool with that.
Anyway, since I arrived here:
* Massive epic wedding with so many wonderful people (so great!)
* Wonderful relationship with in-laws (so incredibly grateful for this)
* Remarkable baby delivered safely in the midst of public health crisis
* One funeral (extended Buddhist social distance style) of a long-lived grandmother shortly after the baby (who shares a name – but not kanji – with her late husband) arrived
* Several museums slowly visited, getting to know the buses, street cars, villages and shrines in our local area
* Many, many bowls of Ramen & teas/coffees (extensively documented for historical research)
So much paperwork and registrations, i.e.:
* national health insurance
* pension program
* “my number” card
* foreigner registration card (& renewal)
* updating a handful of passports
(all of the above requiring slightly different sized photos)
* koseki tohon (family register)
* post office bank account
* international transfer bank
* various library cards
* several hospital cards
* a few mysterious phone numbers
* taxes in multiple countries (such a good boy Dave!)
* various government records in previous countries updated (usually by postal mail since heaven help me if I’m gonna spend four hours on hold)
* Several of the same of the above for wife’s name change & Ichiro’s various registrations and citizenship(s), often requiring certified translation and notarizations
* Add in a consulate visit for an affidavit
* Monthly hospital visits with the neurologist (no, no real progress #mecfs but well… I’m in the system) + frequent “Seitai” treatments / hard to explain but very useful + Several emergency room visit (I’ll spare you the details) + Investigations into LDN/new strategies
* Hundreds, possibly approaching thousands of postal mail items (postcards, letters, dossiers) sent out into the world
* Hundreds, possibly approaching thousands of blog posts (diaries, personal archeology etc.) sent out into the world
* An extended ramble to far-flung corners of under-known Japanese provinces to visit sensei in fishing ports and wizard hermits in mountains (also museums, hot springs, and roadside attractions)
* So many various trains and styles of accommodation utilized / several of which are documented in various forms (the trains, not the hotels/guest houses/capsules/ryokan/minshuku/retreats…)
* Relatives in Nagasaki hospitals and abacus tournaments visited / Plus atomic bomb memorial, and evidence of early Dutch trading settlements, met a noodle-making friend, saw an damaged industrial island that looks like a battleship
* Two Christmases/New Years, one raucous, one subdued
Several, but nowhere near enough, Hot Springs visits > However, wonderful new bathtub installed at our cottage
While on the topic, a couple of double-pane windows, wall repairs and other things to make the house more cozy and efficient (documentation about current construction project omitted to avoid excess redundancy)
Exhibit of my paintings of post boxes, sometimes with haiku, and Shibuya and Mac Kobayashi ’s goat farm, plus a magazine and cameos on TV
Several Mae Maes (Ryoko Olson’s band) shows (plus a YouTube channel) / i’m the proudest husband when I get to go watch her perform + Love to support her when she is organizing concerts and making postcards, flyers, pins…
Going with Ryoko to tea ceremonies at lovely sensei’s house or “out and about” to special events (e.g. ceramic town Bizen where we also visited master potter Hosokawa’s studio) – Learning the tools and the combinations and the processes and the nuance + rocking kimono
Started a sort of kind of little shop thing to sell postcards & poems (including paintings and post boxes, lomos from India,…) I mean the part about sharing the stories I mentioned above preamble
Started a project to sell some things which exist only in memories and on paper

Got some new glasses, gave up some habits, hung out at some barbershops (also wife cut hair), learned some new words, organized some archives, turned 50 years old (did a big personal archeology project about that #daveo50), wrote a few poems, tried some new calligraphy techniques, sorted and organized art supplies, tidied up a tool shed and the barn, listened to a lot of records – some old and some new (to me), books out of boxes and onto shelves, many new books ordered…
Other things & items forgotten (but likely documented elsewhere…)
Most importantly though is remarkable wife and adorable baby and wonderful in-laws and kind and thoughtful friends scattered around the world (you).
#ForeverHome
Fondly, dvo 
Photo: Evidence of a passport renewal, the mustache means I’m a distinguished person to be taken seriously, right? Am I doing this right?
Took a few tries but getting fresh specs dialed in for my curious eyes.
Thanks to Kenji Nishida-san and his tiny optical boutique. Noting: he dresses exclusively in black like some kind of spectacle superhero
And one more (because I am a relentless cornball), this one here at the gallery with a cut out of the architect at this building which was once the prefectural office and now endless white corridors and the hum of fluorescent lights and ventilators
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